Frankie McIntosh and the Art of the Soca Arranger

The book begins with McIntosh's personal voyage from St. Vincent to Brooklyn and his efforts to hammer out a career in music while raising a family in his newly adopted home. His immigrant tale is intertwined with his musical journey, from popular Caribbean dance bands through formal studies in Western classical music and jazz to his work as a gigging jazz pianist and calypso/soca arranger. Along the way he embraced the varied musics of New York's African American and West Indian communities, working with such iconic calypsonians as the Mighty Sparrow, Lord Kitchner, Calypso Rose, and Alston Becket. His story provides a unique lens for viewing Brooklyn Carnival music and brings into focus the borough's rise to prominence as the transnational hub of the soca music industry in the 1980s.

An alternative to traditional scholarship that tends to focus on calypso and soca singers, this work explores the instrumental dimensions of the art form through the life and music of one of the most celebrated soca arrangers and keyboardists of all time.